1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the strapping of bulk boxes, and more particularly, to a machine for the automated strapping of bulk boxes.
2. Prior Art
Containers have been developed in the prior art for the bulk storage and shipment of a variety of materials, including meat products, agricultural produce, flowable goods, and other consumer and industrial products. These containers are commonly referred to as bulk bins or bulk boxes, typically varying in size from forty to sixty inches deep and thirty to forty inches wide, and capable of holding and supporting in excess of four thousand pounds of goods.
Bulk boxes are made of various materials, but commonly employ corrugated cardboard in their construction. Liners are sometimes used to improve the strength of the boxes and to insure leakproof containment of the goods held therein.
The internal contents of these boxes, often fluid, provide minimal support of their own weight and rely upon the structural integrity of the container to support the full weight of the contents. Bulk boxes, unlike most corrugated containers, must resist strong forces in both horizontal and vertical directions. These conditions can cause the sidewalls to bulge outwardly and possibly fail. To alleviate this problem, one or more, typically four to eight, external reinforcing bands or straps of plastic or metal are sometimes applied to the boxes.
In the prior art, the reinforcing straps are manually applied to the boxes, generally with the boxes in a knocked-down or flattened state. This process is time-consuming and expensive, with the ratio of the cost of labor to the cost of materials often as much as 4:1.
Machines are known in the prior art for applying strapping around objects, including boxes, for bundling them together. The heaviest, or largest, strapping that can be handled with these machines is four hundred pounds. Reinforcing strapping as used in the present invention is typically six hundred pound strapping. Applicant is not aware of any prior art machine that applies reinforcing strapping to a container, or any bundling strapper that is capable of handling strapping larger than four hundred pounds.
Accordingly, there is need for an economical system and method for applying external reinforcing straps to bulk boxes.